Costly error

The Appeals Court has upheld a negligence verdict against a defendant that cremated the body of the plaintiffs’ mother and sent the ashes to the plaintiffs with another person’s name on the cremation certificate.

A jury awarded the two plaintiffs $100,000 each.

The Appeals Court affirmed.

“It was not unreasonable for the plaintiffs to conclude that something was amiss when they discovered the mislabeling of their mother’s ashes and, without any explanation at hand, they reasonably could conclude that they had received the wrong (or mixed) ashes,” Judge Elspeth B. Cypher wrote for a unanimous Appeals Court panel. “There was nothing in the law preventing the jury from finding that the sisters suffered injury due to mental distress occasioned by the defendant’s handling of their mother’s remains and the accompanying paperwork.”